A typical call center includes a number of agents who field inbound telephone calls and place outbound telephone calls. Call center telephone calls frequently have associated data, such as customer information. An agent may place outbound sales calls or field inbound calls (such as on 800 telephone numbers) from potential customers. The agents are organized into groups, known as Skill/Split Hunt Groups.
A conventional call center typically comprises either an Automatic Call Distributor (“ACD”) or Private Branch Exchange (“PBX”) which receives incoming calls through a Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”) and routes the calls to a group of ACD agents having like skills, the Skill/Split Hunt Group, rather than to a specific agent. An ACD typically contains a superset of the functions provided by a PBX. Specialized telephones, known as ACD/PBX feature phones, interface with a specific manufacturer's ACD/PBX and provide the agents with an array of advanced telephony functions.
In recent years, call center telephony has begun moving from proprietary ACD/PBX feature phones designed for a specific ACD/PBX to software-controlled telephony applications (“Softphones”) that can either co-exist with a proprietary ACD/PBX feature phone or can utilize telephone sets not necessarily designed for any particular ACD/PBX. To equip a call center with ACD/PBX proprietary feature phones typically costs three to four times as much as equipping with Softphones associated with a non-proprietary phone. In addition, the ACD/PBX itself is also quite costly. A conventional ACD/PBX call center not only requires a proprietary ACD/PBX feature phone, but also requires ACD/PBX interface line cards utilizing a proprietary protocol. Softphones provide a less expensive means for attaining many of the capabilities of an ACD/PBX feature phone while using only software in combination with a “plain-old-telephone set” (“POTS”) and an associated and less expensive line card. A Softphone call center equipped with Softphones and POTS is considerably less expensive to establish and to maintain with the latest upgrades than a call center configured with ACD/PBX feature phones. A Softphone has the added advantage that persons who are not permanent call center agents may be provisioned with call center telephone capabilities without the need for an expensive upgrade to an ACD/PBX feature phone.
The software-controlled application that drives a Softphone call center generally provides the call center agent with a graphical user interface (“GUI”) that replaces the function control buttons on an ACD/PBX feature phone used by the agent to control telephony functions. While interacting with a caller over the Softphone, the agent uses hot keys or an electronic mouse to select telephony functions on a workstation screen. A hot key is a keystroke or combination of keystrokes that sends a command to the computing system that provides the Softphone capability. Softphone telephony features emulate the feature buttons on an ACD/PBX feature phone and are supported via a Computer-Telephony Integration (“CTI”) link to an ACD or a PBX. The CTI link allows the Softphone system to control telephone call handling operations in the ACD/PBX such as answering a call, making a call, transferring a call, and making a conference call, by sending requests and receiving event messages over the CTI link. An event message is an action or occurrence to which the Softphone may respond. Software client/server CTI Middleware products interface to the ACD/PBX proprietary CTI link and simplify the application programming interface (“API”) needed by the Softphone to communicate with the ACD/PBX.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional Softphone-configured call center. In this Softphone call center, an ACD 102 interfaces between client telephone calls 100 and an agent telephone 108 in an agent workstation 120. The clients typically place telephone calls to the agent telephones 108 via a Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”) 101. When a client telephone call 100 arrives at the ACD 102, the call is received by an ACD route point 103. The PSTN calls are generally forwarded to a group of ACD agents having like skills (the ACD Skill/Split Hunt Group) rather than to a specific agent. The ACD 102 routes incoming calls through the ACD route point 103 which typically comprises a phone number in the numbering plan of the ACD 102 that works in conjunction with a routing program 104 that provides a call-handling instructions script. An ACD vector 105, typically a computer program, controls the routing program 104 to enable customized call processing specifications in the ACD 102. The routing program 104 tells the ACD's call processing software how to treat the client's call 100. The routing program 104 typically includes at least one announcement and at least one queue statement. The ACD vector 105 and the routing program 104 may be combined in some conventional ACDs. The queue statement directs the call to a specific ACD Skill/Split Hunt Group 106. The ACD Skill/Split Hunt Group 106 has a single phone number, a Pilot Directory Number (“Pilot DN”) 107 that subsequently directs the client telephone call directly to one of the available agent telephones 108 within the ACD Skill/Split Hunt Group 106. As shown in FIG. 1, the ACD 102 may have multiple route points 103, multiple routing programs 104, multiple ACD vectors 105, and multiple ACD Skill/Split Hunt Groups 106. Each ACD Skill/Split Hunt Group 106 will usually include multiple agent workstations 120.
Each agent workstation 120 has an agent telephone 108 that receives calls directed to either of two numbers. The first number is the telephone number for the telephone instrument itself at the agent workstation 120, or the Phone Directory Number (“Phone DN”). The second number is a telephone number corresponding to the agent, i.e., an Agent Directory Number (“Agent DN”). The Agent DN follows an individual call center agent. Thus, the agent may switch from one agent workstation 120 to another agent workstation 120 and still retain the same Agent DN. The Agent DN constitutes a personal telephone number for the agent and returns a busy signal if the agent is not logged into the ACD 102. The Agent DN connects the call to the agent if the agent is available when the call arrives. If the agent is busy on another call, the caller hears a ringback tone until the agent is free. If the agent is not working on a particular day, or has not otherwise logged into the call center, then the Agent DN will not be active, and a party calling the Agent DN will receive a message to that effect.
A Call Control application server 110 communicates with the ACD 102 through a Computer Telephony Integration (“CTI”) link 109. The Call Control application server 110 comprises a standard computing system, such as a PC, and a CTI server application which processes calling information for an agent via a Softphone application 111 in the agent workstation 120. Each agent typically has a terminal that provides a GUI to the Softphone application 111. The Softphone application 111 emulates the button functions of a conventional ACD/PBX feature phone. The Call Control application server 110 synchronizes the Softphone application 111 with the ACD 102 by sending event messages to the Softphone application 111 pertaining to the set of Agent DNs and Phone DNs that have been provided with the Softphone capability. The Call Control application server 110 services telephony commands from the Softphone application 111 to provide the agent with a Softphone. The combination of the agent workstation 120 utilizing a POTS such as the telephone 108 and the Softphone application 111 provides the agent with the features available on more expensive ACD/PBX feature phones.
A Softphone application's requirements resemble those of a robotic call-handling application. The primary difference is that the Softphone manages calls arriving at a specific Phone DN while a robotic application manages calls arriving at a specific Route Point DN. A robotic application may communicate with both the route point 103, the ACD Skill/Split Hunt Group 106, and the Agent DN and the Phone DN at the agent's workstation 120. Some robotic applications may receive information from the client calls 100 and may, in some instances, handle a call in a manner much like that of a call center agent. As robotic technologies grow more sophisticated, robotic applications may even begin replacing many, or in some instances all call center agents. A Robotic application can therefore be considered a robotic call center agent having many similar needs to a human call center agent or as a robotic application that replaces many of the aforementioned ACD capabilities. In many instances, robotic applications require capabilities beyond those required by human call center agents, such as handling many more calls than would a human agent.
While call centers equipped with Softphones have provided a degree of modularity beyond that of a conventional call center equipped with ACD/PBX feature phones, Softphone call centers nevertheless still rely upon the presence of an ACD/PBX. A conventional ACD performs important call routing tasks in the call center but does not route data, including call-related data. In some conventional call centers, a computing system external to the ACD may monitor the ACD to determine where the ACD has routed a call, e.g., an agent workstation. The external computing system may then forward call-related data to the agent workstation that received the call routed from the monitored ACD. Moreover, agent workstations do not have the ability to transfer directly messages, including calls and data, to other agent workstations. As discussed above, a conventional ACD is an inflexible and costly piece of equipment that thwarts the attainment of true modularity in call center design. Accordingly, call center design would be improved by a decreased reliance upon or outright replacement of the conventional ACD.